The invention specifically concerns machines that make it possible to fill hollow containers such as bottles or pots, with a product, for example, a food product. Such machines generally comprise a rotating carousel, which holds a series of filling spouts. The containers are mounted on the carousel at a given point on the circle that it describes, being arranged below a filling spout. Once the container is placed under the spout, the latter is filled with product in such a way that the product is poured into the inside of the container. When a desired degree of filling is achieved, the feed from the spout is interrupted by a valve installed in the feed circuit of the spout and the container is then removed from the carousel, it being understood that this is before the carousel has made a complete revolution.
The arrangement of the multiple spouts on a carousel makes it possible for the machine to insure the filing of a number of containers simultaneously. It makes it possible to insure filling a significant number of containers in a given period of time, in spite the fact that the filling is an operation that takes a relatively long time. In fact, it is especially necessary to prevent the product from foaming too much, which would lead to an only partial filling of the container or to a loss of product by overflow. A filling machine can thus contain more than one hundred spouts, each spout having an associated valve.
In conventional filling machines, the distribution valve, which controls the product feed across the feed pipe, is connected to the filling spout. The valve and the spout are then either integrated directly in the same housing or separated from each other by a short distance.
However, the fact of having the valve close to the spout poses space requirement problems, particularly in the case of carousel machines having a significant number of spouts. Thus, the space requirement constraints in the area of the carousel zone where the spouts are fitted generally lead to machine designs in which the valves are not very accessible. This lack of accessibility makes maintenance of the valves difficult and, in the case of breakdown, increases the time for repair.
In addition, these great space requirement constraints may make it impossible to use certain types of valves.
To remedy these inconveniences, the invention proposes a filling machine of the type containing at least one filling spout through which a product runs, the spout being intended to be placed across from the opening of a container to be filled, characterized in that the supply to the filling spout is controlled by a valve which is skewed with respect to the spout, the valve being connected to the spout by a feed pipe.
According to other characteristics of the invention:
the valve is skewed vertically toward the bottom with respect to the filling spout;
the valve is skewed vertically toward the bottom with respect to the container to be filled, the latter being itself arranged below the filling spout;
the valve is fitted together so that it is essentially vertical to the filling spout;
the valve contains a vertical sealing pin that is completely held in a vertical circulation chamber across which the product runs, the lower end of the circulation chamber is delimited by a seat against which the pin moves into place toward the bottom to interrupt the circulation of the product, and the pin is lifted upward in the circulation chamber by an electromagnetic field in order to be lifted from the seat in order to allow the passage of the product across the valve;
the machine has several filling stations each containing a filling spout and an associated valve and the filling stations are held on a rotary carousel and are offset at an angle to each other in a regular manner around the axis or rotation of the carousel;
the valves are fitted in an external radial part of the carousel;
the filling spout is surrounded in a fixed housing that is attached to the spout, the housing containing a passage hole across which the spout is fitted, and the housing contains a mobile closing flap which, in the closed position, blocks of the opening and closes the housing in a sealed manner and the machine has the means to cause a cleaning agent to circulate inside the housing;
the closing flap is controlled by actuating means between its closed position and an open position, in which the hole of the housing is open;
the housing extends in a direction that is essentially perpendicular to the flowing direction of the product; and
the fixed housing of each filling station is attached to the carousel.